This is actually a post I did in October of 2006, but it is a useful tool that many of us often forget to use or don’t know exists.

While catching up on some good blogging info at MomGadget, I came across a post by Katelyn. It was about Wayback Machine and checking domains for skeletons in their closets.

The Wayback Machine is actually a very cool tool. You enter a domain name and you can go back through its archives and see what the site looked like in 1996, 1997, and every year thereafter. Archive.org also has tools for finding old music, videos and other media too.

Katelyn was lamenting her difficulty in getting a certain site of hers indexed on Google. She did everything right, from what she could tell, but still no success. She checked her site on Wayback Machine and suddenly it all made sense! The entity that had the domain before her was in a totally different market from her and let’s just say, the content wasn’t rated G, PG, or even R.

In the event that something like this happens to you, you can contact Google directly and plead your case, but I doubt there are any guarantees you’ll be able to convince them.

Tip of the Day - Check Wayback Machine before you buy your domain! You might uncover some skeletons.

With all the discussion about PageRank and its worth or lack there of over the past week, I just couldn’t help but to bring this cartoon back!

Need more Yoda goodness?

• Make a Yoda doll
• Learn to draw Yoda
• Make your own Yoda origami
• Test your Yoda knowledge
• Master Jedi Yoda Mini Snowglobe

It’s Monday, I couldn’t help myself

It is 7:45(ish) on a Saturday morning and I am sitting at the ice hockey rink watching my son’s hockey practice. It might be early, but it is one of my favorite times of the week - really. They have a rocking wireless network here and Starbucks is a block away, so I think of it as 90 minutes of working away from home each week - a nice change of pace.

Its been a pretty wild week in the blogosphere this week. So much talk about page rank - who lost it, theories as to why they lost it, and now the dust begins to settle and some got it back and others didn’t. Overall, my various blogs came out ok - most got an increase (Casual Keystrokes is now a PR5) and some took a hit, but my search traffic is at an all time high, I broke all my traffic, Google Adsense and affiliate records this month and we still have a few days to go. Page Rank is a nice indicator - but it is not the only indicator of a site’s success.

There are four articles that I want to share with you this week - they are all exceptional and I didn’t want anyone to miss them.

Lars-Christian wrote a case study on John Chow - love him or hate him, John Chow has forged his own path through the Internet and Lars-Christian’s case study does an amazing job of illustrating the techniques and reasons behind John’s success.

Speaking of forging your own path, Ed at Evolving Times played CandyLand with his daughter this week and realized that her method of playing is better than the original. Instead of picking a card and seeing where it might take you, Ed’s daughter would rather pick her destination and then find the card that will take her there. Makes a lot more sense and I seem to think that John Chow uses this method, too.

Deb at Freelance Writing Jobs offers up a good series on social networking. Her Frequently Asked Questions about Social Networking piece is particularly good.

Yvonne at Lipsticking wants you to know the Top 10 Reasons You Should Not Blog - notice the tongue in cheek style - it is really aimed at businesses who have come up with 101 excuses not to blog because they just haven’t seen the true benefit yet.

I invite all of you to stop over at my other blog, Casual Keystrokes, and join our weekend conversation for a chance to win a nice prize for a great cause. Plus, October is almost over and that means Casual Keystrokes won’t be pink much longer. Have a fantastic weekend!!